Geneva – Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court has upheld the war crimes conviction of former Liberian rebel commander Alieu Kosiah and his sentence of 20 years in prison, in a ruling made public today. The decision makes final the first war crimes conviction ever handed down by a Swiss civilian court, and the first conviction anywhere of a Liberian for war crimes committed during the country’s civil wars.
Kosiah, a senior commander of the ULIMO armed group, was found guilty of crimes committed in Lofa County between 1993 and 1995. They include killing civilians and ordering their killing, rape, using a child soldier, ordering pillage, cruel treatment of civilians, and desecrating the body of a dead civilian through an act of cannibalism. The Appeals Chamber of the Federal Criminal Court had found that these crimes alone would justify 150 years in prison, reduced to 20 years, the maximum allowed under Swiss law.
The Federal Supreme Court acquitted Kosiah of crimes against humanity, a conviction the Appeals Chamber added in 2023. It ruled that the crimes against humanity provision, introduced into Swiss law in 2011, cannot be applied to acts committed between 1993 and 1995. The acquittal has no effect on his sentence or his expulsion from Switzerland after serving it.
“Today the survivors of Alieu Kosiah’s crimes have final justice, more than 30 years after they suffered and twelve years after his arrest,” said Alain Werner, Director of Civitas Maxima, who represents victims in the case. “When this case began, it was often their word against his, about events during a brutal and traumatic civil war. Today Switzerland’s highest court has confirmed that they were believed. This is a landmark decision, made possible by the courage of these victims, who have written a page of legal history.
“We are, however, deeply disappointed by the acquittal on crimes against humanity. What happened in Lofa between 1993 and 1995 is the very definition of a crime against humanity. Most of the time, civilians were specifically the target: killed, raped, looted and forced to carry loads for the fighters, in a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population. We have always believed this, which makes today’s decision especially disappointing.”
Kosiah settled in Switzerland in the late 1990s and was arrested in November 2014, after Liberian victims filed a criminal complaint through their lawyers. He has been detained ever since. Survivors traveled from Liberia to testify against him during the investigative phase, and also at both trials.
The case was made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), a Liberian organization that has documented civil war crimes for more than a decade. Liberia’s two civil wars, from 1989 to 2003, killed around 250,000 people, and armed groups recruited more than 21,000 children. Yet Liberia has never held a war crimes trial. Civitas Maxima and GJRP have contributed to six criminal trials in four countries linked to Liberia’s civil wars, leading to five convictions. Liberia has committed to a War and Economic Crimes Court, but it has yet to hear a case.
“We are very grateful to Switzerland and the Swiss authorities for their commitment over more than ten years, which allowed Liberian survivors to participate directly in the trials through their lawyers and to obtain this landmark decision for our country and for the world,” said Hassan Bility, Director of GJRP. “But these crimes were committed in Liberia by a Liberian against Liberians, and the judgment was delivered thousands of miles away. Our people should not have to keep looking to Europe or the United States for justice. It is more than time for these trials to take place in Liberia, and for the War and Economic Crimes Court to start its work.”
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